


A Recklessness

by hirusen



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Injury, Language, Lore spoilers, Protectiveness, The Last City (Destiny), The Tower (Destiny), Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 11:25:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18475270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirusen/pseuds/hirusen
Summary: He honestly didn't think that he'd ever find the man down here in the City, but what he did, he won't forget easily.





	A Recklessness

Guardians and the Lightless alike greeted him with warm smiles and nods as he strode down the wide, open street in a busy part of the City. It wasn't too often when Lord Shaxx decided that he needed to actually head into the City to fetch something, but people were always ecstatic to see him in person. He was heading to pick up a supply crate that got mislabeled so he could repair and construct his Redjacks, not in too much of a hurry to do so. He soaked in the life that pulsed and jittered around him; the Guardians that came through his Crucible were vigorous in their own way, but nothing really compared to the energy those who are not gifted with the Light can create.

Children were playing in the middle of the street when he spotted a familiar duster and bearded face. The Drifter.  _What is he doing here?_ As far as Malphur had informed him before he left to continue his hunt, Drifter was a rather cagey man; he didn't like to be out in the open unless he had to be. Taking a peak at where the man was, Shaxx should've known he'd come down here for the food. "And here I thought you'd be content with just ramen." Shaxx commented as he stepped up behind the other man, Drifter sharply spinning around, but managed to keep himself appearing relaxed, a wide grin on his lips.

"Well, it's good for one's health to eat more than just one kind of thing. Figured down here would be a good start." Drifter drawled, leaning against the counter, body a little more relaxed now that they were talking. They didn't do that often, and any time Drifter  _had_ come to talk to him, he was always insistent that Shaxx play just  **one** match of Gambit; just to see what the Guardians he stole from him get up to. Shaxx still bristles at that fact, at the fact that Guardians seemed to enjoy his Gambit more than they did the Crucible.

"You're not getting into trouble, are you?" "Little ol' me? Nah. Just lookin' for a decent bite to eat." Well, he seemed honest at least. As Drifter waited for his meal to be finished, Shaxx joining him in the wait, his brown eyes casted over the people around them; he was always a little nervous to see children playing in the street. Old habits died hard, he guessed.  _Not like they're any safer now than they would've been in the Dark Age._ He chewed his lip at the thought, being reminded of what happened to Yu when the Warlords and Iron Lords clashed in his little homestead of Eaton; the Lightless were just so fragile, so many ways they can die off.

Drifter sighed, shoulders slumping down and Lord Shaxx used the moment to step a little closer into the man's personal space. He was just testing how much trust the man had with him; how willing he was to let someone he knows disapproves of his little 'game' get close. Turned out to be a lot closer than Shaxx originally thought. That, or Drifter was too busy with other thoughts to have noticed that they were almost touching forearms now.

A screech, loud and blood-chilling, ripped through the crowd as it parted like a sea, a rouge cart barreling down the path the people created...

And was heading right for a little girl who couldn't move fast enough.

Shaxx tensed up like a spring, but even if he moved now, he'd be too late to protect the girl. Then he noticed as time seemed to slow that a body was already halfway to the girl, their arms open wide, encircling the child and pressing them to their chest before time returned to normal and the cart slammed into them, shooting the adult and child further down the street, the adult getting slammed into the corner of a building, a loud grunt escaping them before getting bounced a few times on the ground, skidding to a stop a good three meters away from where they had been hit.

Shaxx realized as he ran up to the duo that the person who protected the child...was Drifter.

The young girl was crying now, clearly having been scared, but Drifter loosened his grip on her and sat up, cooing soft sounds to her. "It's okay, it's okay little one. Lemme see ya..." He hushed, carefully cradling the girl's face in his hands. She didn't look hurt at all. "Well! Will you look at that! Not a hair outta place." He smiled warmly to the girl, wiping away the tears before they had a chance to fall. "Oh? What's this?" He questioned, reaching for one of the girl's ears before making a small paper crane appear on his fingertips. The girl was instantly entranced and squealed, carefully taking the crane off of his fingers.

"That's your's now, sweety." Drifter said as Shaxx finally managed to make his way through the crowd to them, the girl's mother joining him, scooping her child into her arms. "Oh, thank the Traveler! I don't know what I would've done if she got hurt!" The woman turned to Drifter then, the man taking Shaxx's hand to stand back up. "I don't know how to thank you!" Drifter, much to the Crucible master's surprise, simply waved the woman off. "No need. Seeing that she's safe...is enough for me." "...Come on, Guardian. Let me take you back to the Tower and have a look at you." Shaxx offered up and his brows seemed to have raised to his hairline when Drifter just nodded his head, suddenly looking like it was taking everything he had to just keep standing.

* * *

Shaxx wasn't sure why he brought Drifter into his apartment, but he did, setting him onto the couch and the take-out box that held his food on the coffee table. "Thanks for grabbin' that, by the way." "Thank me later. Get that off." Drifter smirked and chuckled then, despite the pain he was in. "You want me naked when I bought myself dinner? Nah, nah, nah, brother. It's gonna take more than that to get me out of my clothes." Shaxx didn't feel like playing his games.

Drifter grunted when the ex-Iron Lord grabbed him a little too tight by his throat, but didn't break eye contact with him. "Kinky." "I swear to anything holy, I'm going to break you into pieces one of these days." Drifter just smirked. Shaxx sighed deeply. "Look, either I can toss you off the Tower and you can be rezzed back to full health, or you can let me look at you and patch up the injury myself." "And what makes you think I'm injured?" "You were barely able to stand while talking to that mother, and that grunt you made when you hit the corner of that building was a little too loud for you to not have broken something." Drifter grumbled, hated being called out, but what could he do? He's trained his Ghost to not show itself unless he was totally alone or he summoned it.

Which meant he hasn't started to heal.

"Fine, fine. But offer me something for cooperating with ya." "Besides me not killing you here?" Drifter laughed again. "Besides that." Again, Shaxx sighed. "...Alright. What do you want?" "A peak under that helmet of yours." Shaxx froze. "What? You like Shin, and don't like people seeing yer face?" He asked, carefully leaning back against the couch, though no matter how he moved, it wasn't lessening the pain. "Personally? No, and I have to have total trust with anyone who does know what I look like in order to show them." Drifter could respect that; only two or three people know his ACTUAL real name, and it's taken him a very long time for that to have even been a thought in his mind with them.

"...Alright. If it'll get you to  **behave** for long enough." Shaxx said, sounding almost regretful in the decision. Drifter watched as the much taller man knelt down so they were at eye level with each other, easily within the man's reach. The Dark Age Risen reached out, placing his hands on either side of Shaxx's helmet and began to lift it off. Only to stop when he exposed his chin. "...Huh." Drifter chipped, Shaxx feeling as a finger was carefully traced along his jawline before Drifter settled the helmet back into place. "...That's it?" "I did say a peak, didn't I?"

Well...yes. Yes, he did, but... "No trick? No gimmick?" "Nope. I just want have something to goad your Crucible fanatics with when they play Gambit." Shaxx narrowed his eyes at Drifter. "To do what?" "Fight harder? Maybe shuffle some of them back to you? Look, I love all of the little Lights that come and play my game, but that doesn't mean that I don't see the value of your Crucible." Drifter spoke up, leaning forward a little bit, gritting his teeth. Shaxx crossed his arms. "Really now?" Drifter hummed, carefully pushing himself off the couch and began stripping out of his duster and top, leaving his chaps and boots on since he knows he didn't get hit below the belt anywhere.

Shaxx was actually horrified by the amount of scars on Drifter's body. Surely someone from the Dark Age would have a few, but that many? "Does your Ghost hate you or something?" "More like I hate it." Drifter said, reaching up to rub his neck a little. Then he noticed the tattoos the man had on each of his arms. A red eyed jade snake, starting just above his wrist and ending about mid-bicep, winding around the limb. He still kept his necklace on, but that didn't really matter. "Turn around." Drifter actually listened, Shaxx seeing that he was a little slouched forward.

Drifter felt Shaxx's seemingly massive hand on the top of his shoulder, and then he pulled back, Drifter letting out a bark of pain when he did. "Don't fight. Just relax as much as you can." Shaxx instructed, wanting to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. When Drifter did relax more, he began to wonder how the man was even standing right now; he had several spinal disks half slipped out of place, protruding from his back in such a way that they look like humps. "How high can you raise your arms?" Drifter looked over his shoulder at him as best as he could, brow raised in confusion. "Just do it." "Alright, alright. No need to get feisty." He lifted his arms so that they were level with his shoulders, though Shaxx heard the grunt of effort to do so.

Drifter felt Shaxx lowering his arms back down, that hand back on his shoulder and then a felt his thumb on the base of his skull, pressing in lightly and carefully tracing the curve of his neck. It didn't hurt, but it was odd. And then he kept trailing down, Drifter unable to hold in the hisses of pain that shot through him when Shaxx touched a tender spot. "...Some of the disks in your spine have slipped out, a few pretty high up." Shaxx spoke when he finally settled his hand on the small of Drifter's back, gently pushing Solar Light into his body to try and ease some of the pain the other man was in.

"Can you fix it?" Shaxx hummed. "It's gonna hurt like a bitch, but yes I can. Would you like me to?" "...One more deal, big guy." " ** _What?_** " Drifter smirked at just how  _ANNOYED_ Shaxx was right now. "One game of Gambit Prime." Drifter spoke, sensing Shaxx tense up. "I've got a custom armor set I'll send ya so no one will know it's you; you don't gotta communicate with your team at all. You play one game of Gambit Prime, and in return, I'll let you do whatever you want with me." One game. That sounded like a trap, but... Shaxx will admit to some curiosity about this new version of Gambit, and if Drifter was going to provide him with a set of armor he can use while he played... "Deal."

Drifter's smirk was nearly as wide as his face. He clearly felt like he won this fight, and perhaps he did. That didn't matter now.

Shaxx grabbed the man's arms and crossed them over his chest, tilting his head down until his chin was barely touching his neck. He then locked his arms around Drifter's crossed ones. "In through the nose, out through the mouth." Drifter nodded his head, doing it a few times, and when he exhaled the fourth time, Shaxx pulled back. The sound of Drifter's spine snapping back into place was sickening and the man cursed out something in Fallen speak, following it with a, "Fuckin' hell! You goddamn whore!" Shaxx made sure that Drifter was back on his feet before he released his arms, the man slumping against him for a moment.

"You'll be sore for a while." "No, really? What made you think that?" Drifter snarked, groaning loudly as he lowered himself back down onto the couch, slumped against it. "...I'll message you." Drifter raised a brow, but then understood what Shaxx was referring to then, a smile spreading his lips. "You're gonna like it, hand to my heart." "We'll see."


End file.
